Most occupations with wages near the U.S. median were office and administrative support; construction and extraction; installation,
maintenance, and repair; or production occupations. Twelve office and administrative support occupations had wages near the U.S. median; however, total employment in these 12 occupations was approximately 3.8 million, as compared to total employment of 2.1 million for the production occupations.
Office and administrative support also was the largest occupational group overall, with total employment of 23.2 million, followed by sales and related occupations, with total employment of 14.3 million, and food preparation and serving related occupations, with total employment of 11.4 million. While some occupational groups were highly concentrated in specific industry sectors, others were distributed more evenly across sectors. For example, nearly 89 percent of employment in education, training, and library occupations was found in the educational services sector, and over 87 percent of employment in healthcare support occupations was found in the health care and social assistance sector. In contrast, although retail trade, finance and insurance, and health care and social assistance were among the largest employers of office and administrative support occupations, no single sector employed more than 12.4 percent of this group.
The highest paying occupational groups included management occupations, with a median hourly wage of $42.15, legal occupations ($34.49), and computer and mathematical science occupations ($34.26). Food preparation and serving related occupations ($8.59); farming, fishing, and forestry occupations ($9.34); personal care and service occupations ($9.82); and building and grounds cleaning and maintenance occupations ($10.52) were among the lowest paying occupational groups.
Wages for the occupational groups varied by industry. Utilities; transportation and warehousing; information; and finance and insurance were among the highest paying industry sectors for several occupational groups. Agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting; retail trade; and accommodation and food services were among the lowest paying sectors. For example, median hourly wages for business and financial operations occupations ranged from $33.75 in utilities to $20.94 in accommodation and food services, while median wages for office and administrative support occupations ranged from $19.57 in transportation and warehousing to $10.75 in retail trade.
Detailed Occupational Employment and Wages by Detailed Industry
In addition to the occupational group and industry sector data previously discussed, OES data also are available for detailed occupations and industries. For example, table 5 shows employment and wages by industry for bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks. Employment in this occupation was widely distributed across industries. The accounting, tax preparation, bookkeeping, and payroll services industry employed more bookkeeping clerks than any other industry, but only about 5.4 percent of bookkeeping clerks were employed in this industry. Other large employers of this occupation were building equipment contractors, depository credit intermediation, management of companies and enterprises, and local government (OES designation); each representing less than 5 percent of occupational employment. The median hourly wage for book-keeping clerks in these industries ranged from $14.43 in depository credit intermediation to $16.22 in building equipment contractors.
Although accounting, tax preparation, bookkeeping, and payroll services employed a relatively small percentage of all bookkeeping clerks, this was the second largest occupation in the accounting services industry, representing about 11.4 percent of industry employment. Accountants and auditors was by far the largest occupation in the industry, with 286,110 jobs making up about one-third of industry employment. Tax preparers was the third largest occupation in accounting services, with employment of 61,160. Most of the other large occupations in this industry were office and administrative support occupations.
Occupational Employment and Wages by State and Area
OES data also allow comparison of occupational employment and wages across states and metropolitan areas. Areas with high total
employment also tend to be among the largest employers of any individual occupation, while employment concentrations reflect factors other than overall employment levels, such as the area's industry mix. For example, Texas employed more welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers than any other state, with 53,530 jobs in this occupation; and Wyoming, although it employed fewer total welders than Texas, had one of the highest employment concentrations in this occupation, with welders representing over 9 jobs out of every 1,000 in the state. Louisiana was the only state with both high employment levels and a high employment concentration of this occupation.
Aside from Louisiana, which was both one of the largest employers of dental assistants and one of the states with the highest concentrations of this occupation. Other states with high concentrations of dental assistants were Utah and Washington. Nevada and Hawaii had some of the highest concentrations of construction and maintenance painters, while Connecticut and Nebraska had some of the highest concentrations of insurance claims and policy processing clerks.
Although all of the selected occupations had national median wages near the U.S. median, wages for each occupation varied across states. For example, median wages for welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers varied from $13.83 in South Dakota to $21.29 in Wyoming, while median wages for construction and maintenance painters varied from $13.82 in Texas to $23.14 in Hawaii.
At the metropolitan area level, as at the state level, areas with high employment of the selected occupations also tended to have high overall employment levels. Chicago-Naperville-Joliet,
Ill., and Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale, Calif., were among the largest employers for all of the selected occupations, while New York-
White Plains-Wayne, N.Y.-N.J., and Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, Texas, were among the largest employers for 3 out of the 4 occupations. These also were among the largest metropolitan areas or metropolitan divisions in the United States in terms of total employment.
While both Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, Texas, and Dallas-Plano-Irving, Texas, were among the metropolitan areas with the highest employment of welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers, two other metropolitan areas in Texas - Odessa and Beaumont-Port Arthur - reported some of the highest employment concentrations of this occupation. Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux, La., and Peoria, Ill., also had high concentrations of welders. Two metropolitan divisions in California - Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale and Santa Ana-Anaheim-Irvine - were among the largest employers of dental assistants, while four of the
metropolitan areas with the highest concentrations of dental assistants also were in California. Naples-Marco Island, Fla., and Beaumont-Port Arthur, Texas, were among the areas with the highest concentrations of
construction and maintenance painters, while Wausau, Wis., and Macon, Ga., were among the areas with the highest concentrations of insurance
claims and policy processing clerks, although both areas employed relatively few workers in this occupation. Wages for the selected occupa-
tions varied by metropolitan area. For example, among the metropolitan areas shown, median wages for construction and maintenance painters ranged from $13.46 in Jacksonville, N.C., to $21.85 in Chicago-Naperville-Joliet, Ill., while wages for insurance claims and policy processing clerks ranged from $14.21 in Wausau, Wis., to $19.30 in Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, Mass.
